Democrats: Withhold Consent and Do It Now

A former top aide to Harry Reid urges Democrats to use a rule of Congress to oppose Trump. (His op-ed in the Washington Post should be shared with your own representatives in case they haven't seen it, or think you haven't seen it.)

"Senate Democrats have a powerful tool at their disposal, if they choose to use it, for resisting a president who has no mandate and cannot claim to embody the popular will. That tool lies in the simple but fitting act of withholding consent. An organized effort to do so on the Senate floor can bring the body to its knees and block or severely slow down the agenda of a president who does not represent the majority of Americans."*

Dear Democrats in Congress,

Maybe you’ve been waiting for the new administration to show itself so the public would be outraged enough to support you rather than call your opposition outrageous (or hypocritical.)

But what happens once they’ve achieved critical mass? Once they have all the pieces in place and the machine begins to move? America would understand the danger then but it would be too late to avoid catastrophic damage to our system. Just as waiting till Germany controlled all of Europe made it impossible to prevent the Holocaust, not to mention the destruction of much of Europe.

(I realize Godwin’s Law rejects any Nazi analogies in the present day, but it is vital to see these parallels.)

Leaders of the western democracies thought they could “do business” with Hitler. Some stopped when they realized how evil he was. Some industrialists persisted because they profited.

Tech and other business leaders are arriving at the Trump White House and doing deals despite Trump’s bigotry and vulgarity and recklessness and delusional behavior and rejection of science and facts and his fascist tendencies and his apparent collusion with a foreign enemy.

I worry that the habit that controls the GOP and the profit-seeking habit of business leaders, the habit of not opposing evil as long as they can gain advantage by it, is now infecting Democrats too.

Let’s not make a deal.

Withhold Consent.

Do it now.

The elevation of Steve Bannon to the top national security group and the demotion of the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ought to tell us something. Bannon wasn’t elected. He wasn’t appointed. He put himself there. This is a naked power grab. Should we start calling it a coup? Is this president leading an administration or a regime or a junta? Is he even in charge?

White supremacist Steve Bannon is now President of the United States. He has stated openly that his goal is to destroy our government, which means he wants to destroy democracy and our democratic institutions and all the systems and traditions that support it. They are a nuisance to him.

*Washington Post Op-Ed by Adam Jentleson

How Many Generals Does It Have To Be Before We Call It A "Junta"?

The Atlantic has noticed "Such a lot of generals" in the new Trump administration. What does it mean?

The Washington Post has noticed the same. So many generals! Does it mean a more militarized regime?

There I go. I said "regime." Do we have regimes in this country? When we say "regime" we tend to mean tinpot countries with a faceless leadership wearing military uniforms.

SLATE is noticing lots of generals too.

Is Trump trying to make his presidency militarily unremovable? Make it “Coup-Proof”?

Or is this part of Trump’s own coup?

What does this mean? Is this a different America? Will Trump call himself Generalissimo?

Will Dear Leader Trump review parades of marching armies and tanks and nuclear missiles on trucks while flanked by generals with chests encrusted with medals, just like in Russia and North Korea?

Funny all of this is happening after two and a half million more people voted against him than voted for him. And after his campaign and his bullyboys suppressed the vote by millions more in key states.

Or maybe that is why he is generaling up like this.

Your Daily Trump––The Corruption The Media Doesn't Bother To Report On

Trump’s long history of corruption is well documented. Why do voters not care about this? Why do news organizations ignore this?

From the Washington Post Plum Line column. Their headline tells the story: "Trumps history of corruption is mind-boggling, so why is clinton supposedly the corrupt one/?" In Trump's "bible" the proverb is "he who throws the first stone is usually believed."

Faced with lawsuits over his Trump University [sic], which was a scheme to defraud students, Trump bribes Florida and Texas AG’s to back off.

The Orlando Sentinel Broke this story last week.

In Texas a former staffer in the Attorney General's office says Trump got them to back off in the same way. CBS reports.

James Fallows reports on the Trump Florida bribery case in the Atlantic.

At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall gives his analysis, calling it about as clear cut a case of corruption as you can find.

If you watch the news you have sat through endless stories about empty and disproven allegations against the Clinton Foundation. But you have not seen much about Trump’s Foundation, which doesn’t deserve the name, barely giving any money to any worthwhile cause. Trump did use large checks from his foundation to persuade the attorney general of Florida to back off on the lawsuit over the Trump University fraud scheme.

The media is focused on pulling down the decent and honest candidate and covering up for the corrupt and dishonest one.

Kiss Up, Kick Down

We have an economy that distorts our sympathies and our solutions to problems. It’s all part of The Rule Of Accumulated Advantage, which says the more you have the more you get, the less you have the more we take away. The more you have the more we care about you, the less you have the less we give a damn.

Let's call this Kiss Up, Kick Down.

Examples from today’s news:

Wealth Therapy. Nobody cares about them because they’re rich. So now there are therapists who can soothe their pain. Adding another client class to the retinue, rather than distributing some of that obscene wealth down to the people who actually do the work around here, whose worries are real, whose illnesses can bankrupt them..

The story about Wealth Therapy, in the Guardian.

Down at the other end of the scale, where advantages disappear and disadvantages accrue and reinforce each other, we have a different dynamic at work. We find ways to compound disadvantages. We bill the relatives of the people who die in prison for the cost of imprisoning them. Why charge the families who have already suffered a punishment alongside their kin? Because costs of public necessities are increasingly sorted downward to be paid by people who work for a living, and since people who work for a living have seen their incomes decline there is a persistent deficit. But we must never ever ask the advantaged to pay that deficit. Because that deficit was created by putting a larger and larger portion of our economy into their pockets, and that greater portion deserves its immunity.

The story about charging the imprisoned for their imprisonment, from Vox.

A similar punishing burden falls upon young people who want to go to college. Young people with rich parents have money set aside tax free, but there is very little to be set aside in working families, so they take out loans, which have punitive interest rates, and that money flows daily, monthly and yearly into the pockets of the rich people who own the financial industry. Of course it would be wrong to tax the people who benefit vastly and unequally from our economy to take the load off the people who are trying to better themselves. This is why college debt follows graduates for the rest of their lives, especially those whose education does not lead them into hugely lucrative jobs in the financial industry.

An article about how college loans are our most unforgivable sin, in the Fiscal Times.

The bankruptcy laws allow billionaires like Donald Trump to declare bankruptcy multiple times and walk away from their speculative losses. But the debt incurred by going to college? No that is not something you can walk away from if your life doesn’t fall into place or if misfortune strikes you. Imagine if you graduate from college and unplanned injury or disease prevents you from rising immediately to a lucrative career. You’re outa luck, pal.

The tale of Trump's multiple bankruptcies in the Washington Post.

And in Vanity Fair.

In a way, felons are luckier than college graduates. Felons can be paroled or pardoned. Crimes can be forgiven or plead down. But college debt is never forgivable. The rich can bargain themselves out of their debts to society, but regular people? Never.

Jesus the Corporate CEO

Bill Moyers asks the question: Why have Americans gone along with the concentration of economic privilege?

Where did Americans get the idea of Jesus the Venture Capitalist? Salon has the history.

This man works full time preparing gourmet meals for wealthy New Yorkers while his family lives in a homeless shelter. God bless our free economy. From Raw Story.

The gospel of trickle-down is proving untrue in the Deep South. From the Washington Post.

And finally, a Republican wonders why money always flows uphill in America, unlike in other countries. But he’s only pouting because it’s hurting him. Washington Monthly talks to poor deprived Republican candidate Lindsey Graham.

Oh, and one more thing... The problem of homelessness? There is a solution if you want to solve the problem. From Nashville Public Radio.

Of course it would cost money. The problem then is the Republicans, who think if you don't spend money on a problem there isn't a problem.